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MAY 7 - MAY 13
Welcome to flavorpill SF issue #1. Scroll down to see a filtered list of arts, music, and cultural events in San Francisco. After you get a chance to look through it, please let us know what you think. Then spread it... |  |
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This week's flavor:
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| dj: | Afronaught and Miguel Migs, Pop presents Traum Records Showcase, Sunset San Francisco, Synth: Beyond the Future |
| festival: | Open Park Day at Crissy Field & the Presidio, San Francisco Alternative Music Festival |
| film: | Hotel |
| lecture: | California Book Awards |
| multimedia: | Dominion |
| music: | Brad Mehldau Trio, De La Soul, Maybe Monday, Shabaz, Stephen Kent, and DJ Sep, Super Furry Animals |
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| | The event of the year for writers, readers, and especially critics, the California Book Awards is a smorgasbord of mainstream literariness. It's also a useful deflector of that age-old question: how is it that San Francisco doesn't have a world-class book festival? No matter. Hardly any city is more bookish than ours and no state more suitable — as a setting for literary works, or as a muse. This year's awards demonstrate this perfectly, with top honors going to Susan Straight's Highwire Moon (fiction), Alan Taylor's American Colonies (non-fiction), and Czeslaw Milosz's new collection of poetry. (RR)
  
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| | Pianist Brad Mehldau is highly respected and admired in the jazz sphere by critics and jazz snobs alike. Once you hear him, he'll quickly establish himself as a regular in your CD player. He can swing and bop on jazz standards then launch into beautifully altered renditions of Radiohead and Beatles tunes. To get a taste of the music that has helped put him in the spotlight, pick up the recently released Art of the Trio, Vol. 5: Progression. Brad Mehldau is pure piano genius and his trio-mates, Jorge Rossy on drums and Larry Grenadier (Bay Area native) on bass, play just as richly as Brad himself. (JO)
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| | Super Furry Animals is one of the least categorizable groups out there, but it's also the band that U2's Edge claims is the future of music. SFA's style is over-driven guitar mixed with bittersweet harmonies and masterful orchestral arrangements. Profound lyrics intersect psychedelic instrumentals. Some critics have branded them as Welsh Rock (i.e., they sometimes sing in their native Welsh tongue). If you can't make the show, then pick up their new album, Rings Around The World. (NN)
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FESTIVAL
San Francisco Alternative Music Festival: Joe McPhee, India Cooke Trio
| | when: | Wed 5.8 (8pm) | | where: | 21 Grand Gallery (449B 23rd St, Oakland) | | price: | $10 advance / $15 door / $50 festival pass |
| links: |
SFALT 2002 |
| | With pop dancing gaily on the grave of "alt-rock," the term "alternative music" actually means something again. SFALT 2002 presents a wide array of experimental music — from electronics to free jazz — featuring the Joe McPhee, India Cooke trio (with Donald Robinson) as the week's opening headliner. The legendary McPhee has played saxophones, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano, and electronics on over 60 recordings. Violinist Cooke teaches at the San Francisco Community Music Center, showing that those who can, do pass on the knowledge. Drummer Donald Robinson also appears with the opening Marco Eneidi trio. The French-African filmmaker Véronique Doumbé will present her documentary Denis A. Charles: An Interrupted Conversation. (PS)
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FILM
Hotel
| | when: | Thur 5.9 (7pm) | | where: | SFMOMA (151 3rd St, 415.357.4000) | | price: | $15 general / $12 members, students, & seniors |
| links: |
Hotel | SFMOMA Films |
| | If you saw Timecode, you know director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) is as interested in technique as he is in offbeat stories. Timecode did two cool things: it was shot entirely in hand-held digital and it split the screen into quadrants, showing action in each corner. The story played out from there, in real time. It's a schizo technique but it works, and it's been copied quite a bit these days — most recently in the TV series "24." Figgis' latest stab at split-screen is Hotel, starring Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Burt Reynolds, and Julian Sands (among others), which you can see as part of SFMOMA's monthly collaboration with SF Film Society. (RR)
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DJ
Synth: Beyond the Future. Part 1
| | when: | Thur 5.9 (9pm - 2am) | | where: | Galaxy Club (1840 Haight St, 415.387.2996) | | price: | $5 |
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Synth |
| | Yes folks, you know it, you love it: new wave is back (again). While Kraftwerk enthusiasts replaced their turntables and are now standing stoically behind their iMacs, the club spirit still relies on personable DJ's like tonight's Red Siren to bring us to our knees. Synth will also put David Figurine on the decks, with live acts including Memory System (featuring laptops, live bass, and ethereal female vocals), Sote, Fork (with live visuals by Unstable Media), and Flora + Fauna (from Berlin). (MC)
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DJ
Pop presents Traum Records Showcase
| | when: | Fri 5.10 (9pm) | | where: | An Sibin (1176 Sutter, 415.929.1992) | | price: | $5 |
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POP | Traum |
| | The Broker/Dealer boys are the knob-twiddlers behind Pop, a weekly party dedicated to minimal techno, microhouse, and nu-new wave. This week, they celebrate their appearance on Germany's Traum imprint — part of the ultra-cool Kompakt empire — with a showcase of the label's artists. Tokyo's Waki will be on hand with a hard drive full of analog bliss, while Tijuana's Fax plays dubby techno that's far more Cologne than corrido. Meanwhile, see if you can spot the Hall and Oates samples in Broker/Dealer's set. (PS)
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MULTIMEDIA
Dominion
| | when: | Fri 5.10 (9pm) | | where: | Studio Z (314 11th St, 415.606.5495) | | price: | $20 |
| links: |
Tickets |
| | Love's Revenge brings their quarterly non-profit event to Studio Z. Expect a positive and artistic vibe pervading a fashion-conscious crowd that wants to party all night (and look good gettin' down). This multimedia party presents local artists from a wide spectrum of disciplines: fine art, ballet, aerial performance, fire dancing, film, music, and fashion. At 11pm see fashion shows by both Brick and MOMOCA. DJ's include Terence Troy. Design work by Lesh Studio. (MC)
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MUSIC: World Beat
Shabaz (formerly Ali Khan Band), Stephen Kent, and DJ Sep
| | when: | Fri 5.10 (10pm) | | where: | The Elbo Room (647 Valencia St, 415.552.7788) | | price: | $9 |
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Elbo Room | Shabaz |
| | Combining both vocals and instrumentation inspired by 11 generations of Eastern musicians, Shabaz offers a unique blend of authentic ethnic sounds with dancefloor beats. Siblings Sukhawat Ali Khan and Riffat Salamat create vocal magic, intermingling Indian chants in the Qawwali Sufi tradition. The third member of Shabaz, Richard Michos, provides instrumental backup ranging from Eastern percussions to rock, dance, and hip hop. Special guest Stephen Kent will accompany the band with a didgeridoo, adding more texture to the mix of organic techno and traditional singing. (JK)
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| | No place is a better guide to the changing times and values of our city than the Presidio, which has morphed from Ohlone fishing spot to Spanish fortress to Mexican outpost to US Army base and finally to wildlife-friendly national park. While SF loves to put down the Presidio Trust (the hybrid national park/redevelopment agency that manages it), along with the Crissy Field wetlands restoration, it has given us one of the most spectacular urban parks in the world. Come celebrate with hands-on restoration projects, wildflower walks, tree-climbing shows, and birds-of-prey demonstrations. (RR)
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DJ
Sunset San Francisco
| | when: | Sat 5.11 (12pm - 6pm) | | where: | Golden Gate Park
(email for directions) | | price: |  FREE |
| | The PacificSound crew knows best how to complement a
beautiful San Francisco day. Grab some blankets, your
posse, and get your ass outside. Sunset events unite a
diverse, eclectic crowd of Bay Area folks who wish to
indulge in the simple freedom of dancing outdoors.
Solar, Galen and Co. bring out soulful house music to
scenic locations — the kind of heavy bass and melodic
sound you want to hear while watching the sunset. If
you had plans to invite your out-of-town friends to
SF, here's the opportunity to let them experience the
amazing city you live in. (JK)
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DJ
Afronaught and Miguel Migs
| | when: | Sat 5.11 (9pm - 4am) | | where: | Kelly's Mission Rock (817 China Basin, 415.626.5355) | | price: | $15 advance / $20 door |
| links: |
Tickets |
| | Blasthaus presents West London funk futurist Afronaught in the latest installment of San Francisco's ongoing love affair with all things broken beat. Afronaught's Shapin' Fluid was one of 2001's most startling releases, fusing breaks, Afrobeat, and Motor City soul. As a part of the Bugz in the Attic collective, he's pushing British black music relentlessly forward. Expect future jazz, left-field funk, and house so deep you'll need a rope ladder just to find the front door. Naked Music's Miguel Migs also plays, with Mauricio Aviles and Travis supporting. (PS)
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MUSIC: Alternative
Maybe Monday
| | when: | Sun 5.12 (8pm) | | where: | Great American Music Hall (859 O'Farrell St, 415.885.0750) | | price: | $15 |
| links: |
Maybe Monday |
| | Fans of improvised music have plenty to keep their ears buzzing this week. Playing music from their new release, Digital Wildlife (Winter and Winter), improv trio Maybe Monday revisits the site of their inaugural 1997 performance. Legendary guitarist Fred Frith performs with ROVA saxophonist Larry Ochs and koto player Miya Masaoka. Joining them on cello is Kronos Quartet's Joan Jeanrenaud. (PS)
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| | De La Soul has mastered the art of reinvention, surviving nearly two decades of hip hop trends. Adopting a definitive style from their long succession of hip hop classics, these lyrical storytellers play with a modern primitive sound by contrasting melodies with hard bass and heavy scratching. Molded after the stone-face sounds and attitudes of NY's early-80's urban underground, this renegade trio has an instinctive need to create music from the soul. Thank you, De La Soul, for standing in the way of entropy — proving that music can live in an independent mode and keep true to itself. (JK)
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| CD REVIEW: Dap-Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings |
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Daptone Records
Released 5.14
$14.50 (Amazon)
Nothing, it seems, is what it seems. Perhaps you've heard the tales of obsessive collectors of funk 45's who have been duped by perfect fakes — records so immaculately retro that they were sure they'd come across an undiscovered classic, a holy grail of soul. Now you can enjoy the same thrill with this compilation of déjà vu-derived 45's from, you guessed it, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Every track — with titles like "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" and "Ain't It Hard" — jacks Stax spirit and swings like pure 60's R&B. The horns are fuzzily compressed, the guitars chickenscratch like they're in a henhouse hoe-down. In addition to the Apollo Theater-worthy intro, the band's even got their own dance step. Dap dippin'
— one step forward, two steps back to the golden era of soul. (PS) > |
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| PUBLISHING: IPA |
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| Started as an advocate for progressive publishers getting the shaft from mainstream distributors, the Independent Press Association has since morphed into a trade-n-training association for indie publishers with strong voices. The IPA makes the powerful case that print opinions matter. Ironically enough, their website does this best, with a massive selection of links to publishers you really oughta be reading. |
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| STREAMS: Groovetech |
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With over 4500 DJ streams in the Groovetech treasure chest there truly is something for
the whole electronic music family. Here are a few samples — take them for a
spin.
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| CREDITS |
ABOUT US
flavorpill SF is a free weekly mailer covering music, arts, and cultural events in San Francisco. All listings are made based on what we think has flavor. To let us know about an upcoming event, please send an email to sf-events@flavorpill.net. Comments, questions, ideas or rants: feedback@flavorpill.net. Spread the flavor... |
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